United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Central Asia

UNODC draws to a close a four-part capacity building series for officials from the Ministry of the Interior

UNODC has now successfully concluded a programme of capacity building sessions for officials of the Kazakhstan Ministry of Internal Affairs and its police training institutions. Held at the Almaty Police Academy, this seminar marks the close of the four-part series on building trust.

The full series focused on evidence-based strategies to modernize police policy and practice to promote greater levels of internal trust, as well as public trust in the police and public institutions in Kazakhstan. Previous sessions highlighted the importance of communication, leadership skills, and ethics as mechanisms to promote organizational justice, procedural justice, and enhanced internal and external trust.

"Today's event is relevant, all the more so at the time of major reform of the Interior Ministry. The very notion of trust, which is the bottom line in the series of seminars, covers many areas in the work of the police. One of the criteria in assessing law enforcement activity is the level of public trust in the police. In this connection, the need to improve the work of the police is linked to the assessment and level of the population's trust in law-enforcement agencies.," Head of the Almaty Police Academy Aidar Saitbekov told the seminar.

The session this week provided officials from the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Kazakhstan with an opportunity to apply the principles of change management as a key means of building institutional support for a strengthened approach to the implementation of trust-building concepts and strategies in the daily work of internal affairs bodies in Kazakhstan.

The final session brought these concepts together, with a sustained focus on turning evidence into action. Participants applied the principles and international insights covered in previous sessions to jointly formulate actionable strategies aimed at promoting trustful and mutually supportive interaction between the police and members of the community.

Project Manager, Wendy O’Brien said: “This afternoon our capacity building series culminated in the joint formulation of a series of recommendations to catalyze organizational reform in support of the implementation of a police service model. Participants brought so much to this discussion. In applying both the skills and concepts shared in the training, and their deep knowledge of the national context, participants elaborated a set of strategic recommendations to strengthen trust within the Ministry of the Interior. It was particularly great to see participants active engagement with the issue of diversity and inclusion in the police workforce, and the recognition that this is key to both effective policing and the strengthening of trust with the community. This three-day session, which marks the final part of our training series on trust in policing, was held at the Almaty Police Academy. We extend our thanks to the Head of the Almaty Academy, Aidar Saitbekov, and the Deputy Head, Zhanat Dilbarkhanova, for kindly hosting this event. The event was also attended by John Dudley and Elena Beskrovnaya, from the United States Embassy in Kazakhstan. On behalf of UNODC I extend my appreciation to the U.S Embassy, and Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, of the U.S. Department of State, for the financial support that makes this important work possible.”

As a result of fruitful discussions on sustainable steps aimed at systemic changes in policing, the participants came up with truly valuable recommendations concerning more effective work with the general public, communication with people, cooperation with civil society, interagency coordination in the delivery of services, and analysis of the local police service.

The initiative is part of UNODC's project on Support to Police Reform in Kazakhstan. The project is designed to support the police modernization work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and is carried out with financial support from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) of the U.S. Department of State.

Story in Russian language 

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